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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 08/25/89 -- Vol. 8, No. 8
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
08/30 LZ: Hugo Nominees
_D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.
09/09 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: A. C. Farley,
illustrator (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
09/16 NJSFS New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Kathy Hurley (editor)
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzx!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3D-212 949-5866 homxb!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 lzfme!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Two weeks ago I talked about exercise. Let me take this a step
further. I don't know if you have noticed it, but exercise is
becoming the next major new religion. You may have an Exercist in
the making next door to you without even knowing it. Now don't say
something like, "I can't be Exercist; I'm Presbyterian." The early
Christians were both Christian _a_n_d Jewish! Ask yourself if
exercise is part of your weekly routine. Do you feel guilty if you
miss your exercise? Some people wear religious jewelry to tell the
world their religion. Do you wear running shoes, perhaps whole
running outfits, when you are not running? Do you wear T-shirts
with religious slogans like "Go climb a rock?" Does your car have
bumper stickers like "Weight lifters keep it up longer." Jeez! I
hope not, but how different is that from the "I found it" and
"Jesus saves real good" bumper stickers? Doesn't every shopping
center have a karate and Tae Kwan Do temple in which there is a
hierarchy of priesthood measured in belt colors and with priestly
THE MT VOID Page 2
robes with marked respect for the higher priests? There is even a
sort of catechism. And parents bring their children to be
initiated. And if you are not being solicited by the Krishnas,
it's the local high school football or baseball team. What used to
be the choir is now the cheerleaders. And of course their
devotions become an art form in itself. That's why the whole world
knows the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Dallas Cowboys
Cheerleaders. Of course this is getting away from exercise into
sports, which are sort of non-participatory. Then again, how many
Catholics actually participate in what gets decided at the Vatican?
I guess some parts of religion are non-participatory also.
Well, enough of this. I'm getting depressed. I need inspiration.
Maybe a film like _F_r_a_n_c_i_s _o_f _A_s_s_i_s_i or the _K_n_u_t_e _R_o_c_k_n_e _S_t_o_r_y.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzx!leeper
Want of principle is power.
-- William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
ORPHAN OF CREATION by Roger MacBride Allen
Baen, 1988, ISBN 0-671-65356-3, $3.50.
A book review by Jerry Ryan
Copyright 1989 Jerry Ryan
A quick plot summary of Roger MacBride Allen's _O_r_p_h_a_n _o_f _C_r_e_a_t_i_o_n
is contained in its epigraph, where Stephen Jay Gould asks "Suppose...
that one or several species of our ancestral genus Australopithecus had
survived... what would we have done with them?" That summary doesn't do
much justice to the book, though; Allen has created a terrific story
that is not to be missed.
Dr. Barbara Marchando is a paleoanthropologist with the
Smithsonian. While visiting the family home for Thanksgiving, she comes
across the diary of her great-great-grandfather, who had been a slave on
the plantation that he later came to own, the very mansion she is
visiting. "The Diary of Zebulon Jones" is filled with stories of her
predecessor's exploits as a slave, his escape, and the later adventures
as a landowner and a Congressman that made him the family legend that
Barbara so admires. In the middle of the record of his slave days is an
odd account of strange creatures sold to the plantation owner as new
slaves. The interlude is brief, for the creatures are sickly and die
before much time has passed. The most memorable part of their time on
the plantation is the dispute over their burial. This is recounted in
enough detail in the Jones diary that Barbara is moved to try and
unearth the graves of these creatures.
Barbara and family are outraged at the thought that gorillas (for
so she believes the creatures to be) were brought in to work side by
side with the slaves. As if the slavery wasn't dehumanizing enough! In
fact, the thought of unearthing this missing bit of nastiness from the
past almost keeps Barbara from going ahead with an excavation. She
bounces the idea off Rupert Maxwell, her co-worker at the Smithsonian,
then proceeds to hire her cousin, Livingston Jones, as an assistant.
Together they find and unearth the graves of the gorillas... only to
find that they are not gorillas, but Australopithecines, supposedly long
extinct, but obviously alive as recently as 150 years before.
Barbara faces disbelief from her superiors, and accusations of
fraud from the world at large. When a local reporter gets wind of the
find and breaks it to all the major papers, their discovery becomes a
three day laugher that stands to disappear from the news as quickly as
it appeared. In the meantime Barbara's investigation turns from finding
and unearthing the graves to trying to track down where in Africa this
supposedly long-dead species came from. Clues from local newspapers
from the time of the importation of the creatures lead Barbara, her
cousin, and Rupert Maxwell on an expedition into the African republic of
Gabon to search for the tribe mentioned in the papers.
Orphan of Creation August 22, 1989 Page 2
As the press rakes the team over the coals in America, accusing
them of fabricating the bones from the plantation dig, Barbara and her
team find that the Australopithecines still live. They are slaves of
the Utanni, a little-known and less liked tribe living in the Gabonese
jungle.
Allen's writing is so powerful that I felt like I was helping
Barbara with the dig. I could feel the excitement as she realizes what
it is that she has discovered. The characterizations are excellent, as
well; the reader feels as if Barbara is as alive as you or I. The
quality of the writing, the mystery of the dig, and the suspense of the
search in Gabon kept me up reading long after I should have been
(getting to bed late because of being lost in a good read is an excuse
no child understands the next morning when you want to stay in bed!).
The repugnance of the treatment of the Australopithecines, and the way
that the Utanni are themselves dehumanized by their keeping of the
slaves, is felt in Barbara's anguish as she must trade for one of the
Australopithecines in order to examine it. She realizes that the
creature is not an "it" at all. She decides to bring "Thursday," as
they name her, back to America to free her from the slavekeepers.
While most of the book is taken up with the excavation and the
search for a living Australopithecine, it is the reaction of the world
to Thursday's existence that makes for the most interesting, if not
frightening, reading. Reactions range from the scientist who wants to
import Thursday's people for use as experimental animals for product
testing, to all manner of "creation scientists," "textbook cleansers"
and their ilk, who use Thursday's existence as proof that "evil-loution"
is definitely false. Through it all, Barbara and Thursday's
relationship grows. Thursday is taught American Sign language so that
she may talk with Barbara by way of sign. Barbara grows to view
Thursday as a friend; perhaps a bit slow, but as human and as deserving
of human dignity as she is.
Allen might have titled his book _J_u_s_t _W_h_a_t _I_s _A _H_u_m_a_n, _A_n_y_w_a_y: the
question of what constitutes a human being, and what rights belong to
one that doesn't quite meet the norm, is threaded throughout the story
line. Thursday's eyebrow ridge and sloping forehead are only more
obvious deviations from the norm. The situation becomes all the more
complex when we discover just how close to human Thursday really is.
How Barbara deals with Thursday's human-ness, and the course she takes
to make people see things her way, bring the book to a conclusion that I
won't spoil for you, but there is power in her definition of what a
person really is.
Allen has created rich characters, a suspenseful plot, and a
message or two along the way about racism and about humanity. Don't
miss _O_r_p_h_a_n _o_f _C_r_e_a_t_i_o_n.
VIKRAM & THE VAMPIRE, or Tales of Hindu Devilry
translated by Sir Richard F. Burton
Dover, 1969, ISBN 0-486-2205705, $2.50.
(originally published by Tylston and Edwards in 1893)
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper
Every once in a while, I decide to dig out some older fantasy work
and read it. Two years ago it was _V_a_r_n_e_y _t_h_e _V_a_m_p_i_r_e, last year it was
_W_a_g_n_e_r, _t_h_e _W_e_h_r-_W_o_l_f, and this year it's _V_i_k_r_a_m _a_n_d _t_h_e _V_a_m_p_i_r_e.
Richard Burton (the adventurer, not the actor) was best known for
his translations of Persian tales (variously called _T_h_e _T_h_o_u_s_a_n_d _a_n_d _O_n_e
_N_i_g_h_t_s, _T_h_e _A_r_a_b_i_a_n _N_i_g_h_t_s, and _A _T_h_o_u_s_a_n_d _N_i_g_h_t_s _a_n_d _a _N_i_g_h_t, among
other titles), but he also translated (some say "adapted") eleven
stories from the 1799 Hindu version of the _B_a_i_t_a_l-_P_a_c_h_i_s_i ("Twenty-five
Tales of a Vampire"). This is also known as _V_e_t_a_l_a-_p_a_n_c_h_a-_V_i_n_s_h_a_t_i or
"Twenty-five Tales of a Demon," and is part of a longer 11th Century
Sanskrit work by Bhavabhuti called _K_a_t_h_a _S_a_r_i_t _S_a_g_a_r_a. Dover Books has
now reprinted it under another one of its titles, _V_i_k_r_a_m _a_n_d _t_h_e
_V_a_m_p_i_r_e, a misleading title, since the "vampire" is more like a demon
and has little if any similarity to the standard Western conception of a
vampire as popularized by Bram Stoker. However, the Tylston and Edwards
edition came out in 1893, four years before Stoker's _D_r_a_c_u_l_a narrowed
the definition of "vampire" to what it is today.
Though King Vikram is described as the "King Arthur of India," the
hero seems to be the Baital (vampire). The framing story is that King
Vikram must capture the Baital and bring him to a magician. The Baital
makes a deal where he will tell stories and if the king speaks, the
Baital gets to fly back to his starting point. (Note the similarity to
the _A_r_a_b_i_a_n _N_i_g_h_t_s stories in the cycle that develops.) The Baital
succeeds in outwitting the king twenty-four times before the king
finally succeeds in his task.
Most of the tales are of a fantastical nature. For example, in one
tale a woman has two suitors who are somehow beheaded. She has a magic
potion and manages to re-attach the heads and revive the suitors, but
accidentally switches the heads on the bodies. Other tales are more
down-to-earth. A woman is in love with one man, but marries another for
his money on the condition that the latter allow her one night with the
former. He agrees, but then the other man rejects her because she is
another man's wife, and her husband leaves her because she has not been
virtuous. At the end of each tale, the Baital asks Vikram for his
opinion on some point in the story, and Vikram gives it, putting them
back at their starting point.
The most interesting (and problematic) of the tales is the last,
here called the eleventh, in the original presumably the twenty-fifth,
Vikram & the Vampire August 18, 1989 Page 2
though I have my doubts about its presence there at all. It is a tale
of prediction, where the Baital tells Vikram of what is to come: of pale
foreigners who come to India, who bow to a woman, who conquer India, who
give women equality (well, by 19th Century standards, anyway), and so
on. It's a very accurate description of the British and their conquest
of India. I just find it hard to believe that it was written in the
11th Century. My suspicion is that there was some sort of predictive
tale in the original, but that Burton re-wrote it entirely, keeping the
concept while changing all the facts. Fawn Brodie's biography of
Burton, _T_h_e _D_e_v_i_l _D_r_i_v_e_s, doesn't comment on this, but Jorge Luis Borges
(in "The Translators of _T_h_e _1_0_0_1 _N_i_g_h_t_s [1935]) says that Burton's
translation of that work introduces "a falseness. Not a bad
falseness.... He gravely translates _S_u_l_a_y_m_a_n 'Son of David' (on the
twain be peace!)'; later, when that majesty is familiar to us, he
reduces it to _S_o_l_o_m_o_n _D_a_v_i_d_s_o_n. ... Burton completely rewrites, with
addition of circumstantial details and physiological features, the
beginning of the history and the end." (Italics in Borges's original.)
This would seem to substantiate my suspicion.
Unfortunately, the Dover edition appears to be out of print and
indeed, the only edition in print costs $23. That is a bit steep for
the average casual reader. However, I wouldn't be surprised to find
that many libraries have the Dover edition on their shelves, so I feel
no guilt at recommending this book if you enjoy fantastic tales of the
Arabian Nights variety.
1930s Science Fiction Double Feature
Film comment by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
I came out of a double feature at the Film Forum in New York City
listening to the conversation of the couple behind me. "Boy, I guess
you really don't know how bad films were back then," the man said. I
guess the comment really took me by surprise. This was an evening I had
been looking forward to for months and which had surpassed all
expectations. The evening started with a chapter from the serial
_B_a_t_m_a_n, continued with _D_e_l_u_g_e, and concluded with _F._P._1. Each was a
film I'd wanted to see for years. The fact that they did not stand up
well compared to _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s is hardly relevant. Each of these films is a
missing piece of the puzzle of how science fiction films evolved. When
they find a new fossil at Olduvai they don't get excited because it came
from a really terrific ape. Of the great classic science fiction films
that I have never seen, I expect them all to be at best mediocre by
today's standards. Better than that is too much to hope for. I frankly
never expect to see a great 1930s science fiction film that I have not
already seen.
The _B_a_t_m_a_n serial was not actually from the 1930s, but from 1943,
and directed by Lambert Hillyer, who had previously directed atmospheric
chillers such as _T_h_e _I_n_v_i_s_i_b_l_e _R_a_y and _D_r_a_c_u_l_a'_s _D_a_u_g_h_t_e_r. Lewis Wilson
was the screen's first Batman (succeeded by Robert Lowry and, of course,
Adam West and Michael Keaton). I have seen Michael Keaton sticking his
chin out of his stiff--probably plastic--costume, and he really looks
like the comic character. In 1943 Columbia did not have the same
materials. Wilson's Batman suit really does look like the long
underwear it was probably made from. There are wrinkles on the legs and
the arms. There is a pressed crease up the side of the legs. The cowl
has the bat-ears but they are bent at the ends. The effect is like a
jester's cap and brought howls of laughter from the audience. Robin had
a full head of curly hair and a Halloween mask.
The only recognizable actor in the episode was J. Carrol Naish as
the evil Japanese mad scientist Dr. Daka with a machine that turns men
into zombies. When Daka turns on his weird electrical equipment the
entire theatre vibrates, probably due to equipment left over from
showing _T_h_e _T_i_n_g_l_e_r earlier the same week. It wasn't as visually
impressive as the 1989 _B_a_t_m_a_n, but it was a lot more fun. This was
Chapter Five of _B_a_t_m_a_n, for the record.
Film number two was _D_e_l_u_g_e, directed in 1933 by Felix Feist, then
23 years old. He directed the 1953 _D_o_n_o_v_a_n'_s _B_r_a_i_n and several episodes
of television's _V_o_y_a_g_e _t_o _t_h_e _B_o_t_t_o_m _o_f _t_h_e _S_e_a. Here he was directing
a screen version of the novel by S. Fowler Wright. It should be noted
that _D_e_l_u_g_e has long been thought to be a lost film and remains semi-
lost. It has been just a couple of years since a copy turned up and it
Deluge/F.P.1 August 17, 1989 Page 2
is dubbed in Italian. For this showing a man at the back of the theatre
translated.
The film opens by reminding us that God promised not to destroy the
world by flood again and then, after a buildup of nature going very
sour, proceeds to show most of the world being destroyed just the same
way again. We are told that the west coast has fallen into the ocean
but never see it. We do see New York City struck down by tidal waves
and we see buildings crumble. If the effects were believable they would
be spectacular. However, even a contemporary reviewer complained that
the effects were none too convincing. My audience apparently agreed and
jeered. Now I like really credible effects. They are a virtue. But a
reasonable attempt at effects is sufficient for me. They are, after
all, just a device to carry the plot. When I go to a puppet show I do
not complain that the puppets do not fool me into thinking they are real
people. Weak effects are quite forgivable as far as I am concerned if
the rest of the film captures my interest.
And _D_e_l_u_g_e is a very interesting film, if not for anything
intrinsic at least for where it fits historically. What is particularly
interesting is how the film reminds one of films that came after, but
not of films that came before. After the holocaust is over and there
are just a handful of people left the story has definite parallels to _N_o
_B_l_a_d_e _o_f _G_r_a_s_s and the excellent British television series _T_h_e
_S_u_r_v_i_v_o_r_s.
Before the holocaust we have been introduced to iron-jawed Martin
(Sidney Blackmer), a family man who saves his family by moving them to a
stone quarry but is somehow separated from them. And we meet Claire, an
athletic swimmer. The storm washes Claire to the doorstep of two
criminals. Claire becomes one vertex in a triangle that leads to the
murder of one of the criminals. Roger Corman would use almost the same
plot for the 1960 _L_a_s_t _W_o_m_a_n _o_n _E_a_r_t_h.
Claire escapes the killer Jephson only to be found by Martin, alone
since the storm. The two of them try to survive together. However, in
the mean time, a group of survivors has set up a small town. They have
thrown out some undesirables and the criminals pick Jephson as their
leader. He leads them on a raid against Martin and Claire. At this
point the film has sort of degenerated into a bad Western plot.
Surprisingly, things do _n_o_t work out well for all concerned, and the
film does at times touch on questions of whether bigamy is justifiable
in a post-holocaust world. The story if crudely done, but that didn't
stop much of it from being redone, often no better, by other filmmakers.
A good film? No. But not a bad film either and definitely an important
artifact.
Waiting for the film to start, I started talking to someone sitting
next to me who had just finished seeing _F._P._1. He assured me it really
cornball with bad dialog. I think I'd like to thank him for lowering my
expectations and making _F._P._1 such a pleasant surprise when my turn came
Deluge/F.P.1 August 17, 1989 Page 3
to see it. _F._P._1 (1932) is an engineering film, sort of a forerunner to
_t_h_e _T_u_n_n_e_l and its remake _T_h_e _T_r_a_n_s_a_t_l_a_n_t_i_c _T_u_n_n_e_l, and later _T_h_i_n_g_s _t_o
_C_o_m_e. Like the Tunnel films, _F._P._1 concerns itself with engineering
feats to aid transatlantic travel. Instead of being about a tunnel, it
is about the building of a great floating airstrip and hotel to be built
mid-Atlantic, the Floating Platform 1.
_F._P._1 is really a German film refilmed in English to give it the
trappings of a British film. It is the story of engineer Captain Drost,
who designed the platform but could not sell it to anyone, and his
friend pilot Major Ellissen, an enigmatic figure who arranges stunts to
bring the platform to the attention of a shipyard, then competes with
Drost for the attentions of heiress Clare Lennartz. Ellissen is played
by a very dashing Conrad Veidt.
_F._P._1 is a spectacular melodrama of a great engineering feat and
what goes into building it. There is a subplot of a consortium
dedicated to destroying the great platform for no readily apparent
reason.
I am glad I went.
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